My column today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bruce Ledewitz: The right and the wrong ways to protest ICE

Jan 26, 2026

From the public record, it certainly appears that the shooting death of Renee Good on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross was the result of excessive force. We may never know for sure, because the administration of Donald Trump is doing everything it can to suppress a fair inquiry of the incident, going so far as to cruelly investigate the victim’s wife.

None of that, however, obscures the reckless course of conduct pursued by Ms. Good on that day. No one has any business using a car as a part of a protest in close proximity to law enforcement. Such a course of action is dangerous to the protestor and to law enforcement personnel. That is not how you resist.

Ms. Good’s actions reflect the increasing radicalization of the immigration protestors, which have come to resemble the rhetoric and actions of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ignoring democracy

Like that mob, the protestors ignore the democratic background of the government actions they oppose. Trump campaigned on a promise to carry out mass deportations. I don’t agree with these raids, but the American people voted for them.

In addition, the raids are overwhelmingly lawful. The vast majority of the people arrested are in fact here without legal authorization and are subject to deportation.

Immigration raids, if conducted within constitutional protections of search and seizure, are legitimate government actions. They are not fascism. That is why the refusal to investigate the death of Ms. Good is a mistake. It actually undermines immigration enforcement.

The death of Ms. Good will only exacerbate the tendency of immigration protestors to target ICE agents instead of the deportation policy itself. Like the mob on Jan. 6, the protestors are increasingly placing the blame for government policies they don’t like on ordinary law enforcement personnel.

ICE agents are not ordering mass immigration arrests. They are carrying out the orders of a democratically elected government. They do not deserve to be targeted.

What’s next? Are protestors going to use pepper spray as the thugs did to the Capitol police on Jan. 6? Are they going to assault ICE agents with planks? If convicted, are they going to hope for disgraceful presidential pardons, like the ones Trump issued to persons convicted of assaulting police officers?

Safe and respectful resistance

It’s not as if Americans do not know how to conduct safe and respectful nonviolent civil disobedience. You find out where ICE is going, you get there first and then passively obstruct enforcement efforts. You lie down. You chain yourselves to doors. You get arrested. It becomes expensive and difficult to conduct immigration raids.

That is how anti-abortion protestors do it. That is how the suffragettes did it. That is how the Civil Rights movement did it. No one has to get hurt. The point is challenging government policy. The police are not the enemy.

And if that is not a strong enough effort, there is a more extreme model of nonviolent resistance: the underground railroad that freed slaves. If protestors are willing to risk substantial criminal liability, they can spirit immigrants away from ICE. They can move them to another state. Forge documents. All this has also been a part of America’s history of protest.

But some protestors appear to have a different model in mind—direct physical resistance to immigration enforcement. There is also a parallel here in American history. By the late 1850s, slavecatchers could not safely enter Boston and certain other American cities. They would be assaulted by abolitionists.

But this parallel to today is not apt. The abolitionists were clear that slavery was an absolute evil. All means of resistance were justified. Plus, the slavecatchers were bounty hunters: private citizens personally profiting from the slavery system.

Surely no one thinks that any limit on immigration is an absolute evil. Every country maintains some control over its borders. Even people like me who favor increased immigration would maintain background security checks on people entering the country.

The left did not stage mass protests when President Barak Obama deported over 3 million persons during his presidency, often in alleged violation of due process.

In addition, ICE personnel are not bounty hunters. They are law enforcement officers carrying out democratically chosen government policies. How did they become the target?

A matter of ordinary politics

Immigration policy is a matter for ordinary politics. It is not oppressive for the American people to choose closed borders and limited immigration. It is just a really bad idea. No one has a moral right to enter the United States without complying with its immigration laws. 

If someone decides to enter illegally, that person has no right to complain if the country deports them in accordance with its laws created by its elected officials. Enforcement of immigration limits is not a moral evil.

Of course, like any other policy, people who object have a legitimate right to protest, and even engage in civil disobedience, to try to bring the harm of mass raids to the attention of the public and get immigration enforcement policy changed.

But there are ways to do this that do not denigrate law enforcement and do not endanger everyone involved. There are better ways to resist.

Bruce Ledewitz, a contributing writer for the Post-Gazette, is professor of law emeritus at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. He writes every other Monday. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University. His previous article was “A moderate Democrat looks at Trump voters.”

First Published: January 26, 2026, 4:30 a.m.